An amateur astronomer reported the visual detection of a fireball on Jupiter at 11:35 UT (September 10 2012) last night. It was confirmed on a video recorded from Texas. This is the 6th impact of Jupiter detected so far.

A screen capture from the video recorded on September 10 2012 at 11:35 UT by George. The video was captured with a 12" LX200GPS, 3x Televue Barlow, and Point Grey Flea 3 camera. http://georgeastro.weebly.com/jupiter.html

Astronomer Dan Petersen saw today September 10 2012 at 11:35 UT a bright flash on Jupiter which lasted 1 or 2 seconds. It estimated its position to be in the system I Longitude = 335 and Latitude = +12 deg. The report was sent to Richard Schmude of the Association of Lunar and Planetary Observers (ALPO) and forwarded to us by John H. Rogers, Jupiter Section Director at the British Astronomical Association.

A video of the flash was revealed a few hours later by George Hall, an amateur astronomer located in Dallas Texas. He used a webcam mounted on a MEADE 12″ LX200GPS. An image extracted from the video is attached above and it looks quite similar to the flash observed on August 20 2010.

This is the 6th impact observed on Jupiter. The most famous one was the predicted, and intensively observed, impact of the comet Shoemaeker-Levy 9 (S-L 9) which broke apart and collide on Jupiter in July 1994. An fireball was photographed by Voyager 1 during its encounter on March 1979 with Jupiter. More recently, thanks to the intensive monitoring of amateur astronomer and the improvement in image quality providing by cheap webcam plugged on small telescopes, several small impacts were detected and followed up by amateur and professional astronomers together:

I reported in this blog the July 19 2009 impact which was followed up by our team using adaptive optics systems on various large telescopes including Keck-10m, TNG-3.6m, and the VLT-8m. That was a fun moment in my career which leads to a large international collaboration and this scientific article.

Anthony Wesley, an Australian amateur astronomer saw a flash at 4:31 p.m. (EDT) on June 3 2010. Images collected a few days after using the Hubble Space Telescope did not reveal the presence of scar or debris

In August 20 2010, a third flash was reported by Masayuki Tachikawa, amateur astronomer from Kumamoto city, Japan. I did not find anywhere a follow-up of this meteor impact.

Because the impactors were small (a few meters) the 2010 impacts were not big explosions driving a giant plume, as we have seen for S-L 9 and the 2009 impact. The absence of scar, or “black spots” on Jupiter, observed for the 2010 events implies that there was no debris field, so they were most likely just meteors. To characterize the type of impact that was observed a few hours ago, the area of the impact will be monitored using large facilities. If a scar is detected in the visible light, it will be definitely an interesting event which will be followed up by amateurs and professional astronomers.

These impacts or meteors are not only a distraction for planetary astronomers. They give us an opportunity to better understand the internal structure of Jupiter since the energetic ones reveal the lower deck of clouds and provide clues on its composition. Additionally, the complex pattern of jet stream winds at various latitudes can be also directly measured by monitoring the evolution of a scar over a long period of time like it was done for the 2009 impact.

It is also a way to assess the rate of large meteoroid impacts on the planets and understand the role of Jupiter in shielding the inner part of the solar system. This idea remains controversial (see Jupiter: Friend or Foe?) and a direct measurements of the flux of meteors and impact rate may help to provide a better answer to this question.

Finally, even if this flash ends up being “just a meteor”, it is remarkable that amateur astronomers are today capable of monitoring almost permanently the planet Jupiter. These organized network teams are a great asset for professional astronomers since they can detect these events and quickly warn others.

Dr. Franck Marchis is a Senior Scientist and Science Outreach Manager at the SETI Institute and Chief Scientific Officer at Unistellar. Marchis earned his PhD in Astrophysics at the Université Paul Sabatier, France, in 2000. He is a planetary astronomer with 22 years of experience in academic, international and non-profit scientific institutions and has conducted multiple research projects in a wide range of areas. He is best known for his discovery and characterization of multiple asteroids, his study of Io volcanism and imaging of exoplanets, planets around other stars. In April 2007, the asteroid numbered 1989SO8 was named “(6639) Marchis” in honor of his work in the field of multiple asteroids.
More recently, he has been also involved in the definition of new generation of AOs for 8 -10 m class telescopes and future Extremely Large Telescopes. He has developed algorithms to process and enhance the quality of images, both astronomical and biological.
His currently involved in the Gemini Planet Imager Exoplanet Survey, which consists in imaging exoplanets using an extreme AO system for the Gemini South telescope. This new instrument is capable of imaging and recording spectra of young Jupiter-like exoplanets orbiting around nearby stars.

Very O Futuristic..perhaps, the planet is evolving or recreating to be inhabited. Why now? There has been no activity before the 70’s? Timing is important. Something definitely cause the flare. No freak accident.

G’Day! Franck,
Neat Post, when they say the fireball “slammed” into jupiter, is there really anything in that bigass sphere to slam into? do we know what’s inside jupiter? is there really any solid surface anywhere in it at all? what’s a more likely scenario for what happened to the fireball when it entered jupiter’s atmosphere? just curious. thanks
Good Job!

From the looks of the video, Monday night would not have been a very jovial night to spend on Jupiter. Two amateur astronomers saw a bright white flash for a few seconds just inside Jupiter’s eastern limb, which was probably a fireball a hundred miles in diameter caused by an asteroid or comet impacting Jupiter’s atmosphere.